NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Thanksgiving campfire with American marshmallows!

Things I (Kelly) love about PNG…

I love to be able to go outside and pick flowers to make beautiful bouquets.  God has created so many unique things; we are still discovering new things He has made every day.

I love picking oranges right off the tree with Noah and Eli and hearing them God for giving them to us.  We get a lot of great fruits and vegetables here and I’m so thankful for that!

I love that practically every time I go outside the weather is perfect and I don’t even need a jacket… just maybe some mud boots!  Everywhere we go is an exploration of God’s amazing creativity and beauty all around us.  PNG truly is a beautiful place.

I love our house and how much I feel at home here.

I love that we found an internet provider that is affordable enough to Skype our families.

I love to see the gifts God has given Mike and the purpose God has for us here – to provide for the transportation needs of missionaries in order that people who live in really remote places can hear the gospel and be discipled to maturity in their faith.

I love having two little boys who constantly make me smile.   I love that I am able to stay home with them and make memories with them each day.

I love that God has given us His word and that we can trust Him even in the difficulties, knowing that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  He continues to draw us to Himself and He is so faithful to us, even when we are faithless.

Fourteen years ago, God laid overseas missions on my heart while I was at Capernwray (a Torchbearer School in England).  Since this time, I have been seeking the Lord asking Him to use my life as He would wish.  I needed money for school, so worked for my father as a carpenter for two years.  In 2000, I started school at the Moody Bible Institute in Missionary Aviation.  I graduated with my flight training and aircraft mechanics licenses in 2005.  I had the certificate, but I was very much in need of experience.  A couple of Christian men who were running an airport in a small town outside of Charlotte, North Carolina offered me a job.  Their desire was for me to get the aviation experience I needed as well as help me by paying off a student loan I had to take out to finish my flight training.  In twelve months I gained a lot of experience as a flight instructor and also got time turning wrenches in their shop.  While I was a student at Moody, I had an instructor, Jason Miller, who was also a pilot for New Tribes Mission.  I learned that if I flew for NTM, I would be directly aiding the spread of the gospel into some of the most remote locations in the world.  There are still people in the world who are so isolated that they have never had the opportunity yet to learn about who God is and what He has done for them.  After my year in North Carolina, Kelly and I applied to New Tribes Mission.  We were accepted and given some additional training in church planting and language learning.  in 2007 we moved to Arizona where we started working with NTM Aviation.  I was trained in mountain bush flying techniques and how to maintain the types of aircraft I would be flying overseas.  I also was given the opportunity to learn how to fly a helicopter during this time.  I was able to flight instruct in  the helicopter to gain experience and then received advanced training in mountain flying and sling (external) loads.  In 2010 we were granted our visas for Papua New Guinea.  We arrived in PNG early that year and began to learn the PNG trade language, Pidgin.

The lack of road access throughout PNG makes aviation a necessity here.  Many of our missionaries live in areas where the terrain dictates the necessity of using a helicopter for transportation.  There is so much mining going on in Papua New Guinea that virtually every commercial helicopter within PNG is under contract to these different companies.  Even if one was available to fly for our missionaries, the price of using helicopters within PNG makes it unaffordable (prices start at $2500/flight hour).  Many of our missionaries live in locations which are at least a forty-five minute flight each way and they often need food and other supplies brought in at regular intervals throughout the year.  We are able to operate for a fraction of the cost of these commercial operators and offer our missionaries flexible cost effective transportation enabling the gospel to reach these remote locations.

In November 2010, I started flying with NTM Aviation here in Papua New Guinea.  I was paired up with a veteran pilot, Ray Finsaas, who has flown here for many years.  The difficult terrain and unpredictable weather make flying in PNG very challenging.  Ray has been riding along with me helping me learn how to make wise decisions and get to know the terrain and weather patterns around the locations where we have missionaries working.  It has been great to have him along.  In July I took a PNG flight test and began flying on my own.

I have the privilege of flying into locations where the gospel message has not been presented yet.  Helicopter is the only way to get into most of these locations.  It is an honor to serve missionary families who are sacrificing everything this world has to offer in order to reach people who would never otherwise have the opportunity to hear the gospel.  I also get to fly into locations which are further along in their ministry.  These locations often have growing churches with the missionaries actively working at discipling the believers and mentoring the new church leaders.  Every once in a while, I get the opportunity to land the helicopter into locations where our missionaries have been gone for years.  It is so exciting to see that the churches are continuing to grow and are now sending out their own missionaries into neighboring villages and language groups.  God deserves the glory for all of this.  He loves the people in PNG so much, that He has made a way for them to hear about who He is and what He has done for them, even though they live in locations that are inaccessible without a helicopter.

It is amazing to see how the Lord has directed, sustained, and provided for our family throughout this journey.  We are now involved in a ministry that we feel very passionate about and it is a privilege to serve the Lord and get the chance to see first hand what He is doing in the lives of people all over Papua New Guinea.  One day we will all be around God’s throne, praising Him with these new brothers and sisters from Papua New Guinea!

By 6:30 PM it is dark in PNG.  Whenever we have been out visiting friends and are driving home, I am just amazed to see the people that are out walking at night.  I wonder why they did not get home before dark because there are no streetlights.  They walk on the edge of the highway… which is scary during the day, but a much greater risk at night!  Often they will use a cell phone to provide them with a little light, but sometimes they are just walking along in complete darkness.

PNG is a land of darkness where many people have been deceived and do not understand the truth.  We have heard that many times when a family member is very sick or has suffered a major injury, often very little effort is made to help them even though their life could be easily extended.  After the person dies, family and friends sometimes will spend thousands of dollars to transport the body by helicopter in order for them to get back to their original home (Mike has been involved in a number of these).   The people fear that if the spirit of the dead person become angry, the spirit will come after them and cause them harm.  So once a person has died, everyone goes out of their way to spend money and show how sorry they are.  Often people here believe that natural deaths are caused by people working sorcery.  The deceased’s friends and relatives are on the lookout for anyone who may have wanted to cause the person harm.  Everyone is very careful about how they act and what they say to make sure that they will not be accused of such a crime.

Matthew quoted the prophet Isaiah when he referred to Jesus’ ministry in Matthew 4:16, “The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in land of the shadow of death a light has dawned”.  This really describes what is happening in PNG.  What is exciting is that there are places where people who once lived in darkness are now living in the light.  In one of our locations in Madang province the witchdoctor of the village recently shared his testimony with the rest of the church.  Everyone who heard it was amazed by the transformation in his life, since they all knew him and the darkness he had lived in.  They gave thanks to God for His grace, extended to each one of us no matter who we are or what we have done.

There are a number of locations where we used to have missionaries, but now the believers are on their own.  One location in the highlands a believer has been traveling to a market where he has been sharing some stories from the Bible with people there buying and selling produce.  The people there have become so excited about what they are hearing that they have asked him return and teach them through the Bible.  Over on New Britain Island, Mike had the opportunity to land the helicopter into a location where the missionaries have pulled out years before, but a mature, growing church remains.  They are so excited about their faith and have been traveling to all of the neighboring villages sharing about what Christ has done.  One village was not interested in hearing this teaching and previously rejected it.  Recently, they have taken note of the changed lives in some of the villages close by that have heard the teaching.  Due to some hardships that have come up in the village, they now have a renewed interest in being taught themselves.  They have asked these Christians to come to their village and teach them about Christ. Things like this are happening all over Papua New Guinea.

We just wanted to thank you again for your prayers and support of our ministry!  There is a lot of work left to be done in Papua New Guinea.  We are so thankful that we can be here and know that we couldn’t do this without you.  Here are a few things for you to pray about for us:

-Pray for the helicopter training.  Mike has been flying for seven months in Papua New Guinea with another NTM pilot.  He is ready to fly here on his own once he completes some simulated emergency training.  We are asking God to work out the details for John Mark, NTM’s chief pilot who lives in the US, to come and complete this portion of Mike’s training.  He hopes to come this summer.

-Pray for us as we raise our two boys.  Pray that God gives us insight and that their hearts would be tender towards God.

-Pray for the four new missionary families joining us where we live over the next few months.  We are excited as they all have little kids and hope that we can be a help and listening ear for them as they go through the process of language learning.  After they learn the pidgin trade language they will all be relocating out to work with an unreached language group.

-Pray for our personal spiritual growth, that we would be more like Christ each day.

Recently I have been out flying on New Britain Island – a large island Northeast of where we live.  There are places where missionaries have worked for years with little response from the people and just now are really seeing the Lord work in the lives of the people and many are coming to faith.

In order to keep the flight costs down I sometimes will sleep overnight in small villages with different missionary families.  That way we can benefit other missionaries living in the same area without having to make separate trips with the helicopter from our main center for each family.  It can be tough being away from my wife and kids during these times, but they can also be some of the most rewarding times getting to know the missionaries, seeing some of the joys and struggles they face and seeing first hand what the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of these new believers.

One evening I was able to attend a meeting with some of the believers from the local village.  It was an evening meeting, so I grabbed my flashlight and found my way to one of their kunai grass huts.  As I stepped inside the only light was from a small solar lantern and some coals left from the fire used to cook dinner in the middle of the dirt floor.  Inside the interior of the house was a bamboo frame used for sitting in the day and sleeping at night.  Every worldly possession they owned was sitting in the corner of their house.  I noticed that they owned a few coffee mugs, a couple of old beat up pots, a machete, a homemade bow with arrows made from wood and bamboo, and an old plastic bucket for carrying water.  It is humbling to see how little most people in these villages actually have.

Smiling from ear to ear, different ones took turns telling me how different their lives are now that they have trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation.  They no longer have to live in fear of God or the evil spirits around the village.  Later the missionaries told me of many different things that they have noticed the people doing differently now that they no longer live in fear.  One of the believer’s sons became very sick, to the point of death.  They hiked the child on their backs to a small medical clinic, but did not look like they would be able to save him.  The local witch doctor sent word to the family telling him that the spirits told him if they stayed in the hospital the child would die.  Only if they brought the child back and allowed him to work on the child, would the child live.  This family’s relatives and friends are not believers and were all putting pressure on the family to bring the child back.  If the child died in the clinic, the family would owe compensation to all of their relatives.  Not following the advice of the witch doctor would be considered the same as them killing their child.  The family was very afraid and the believers in the village gathered together to pray that God would save the life of this child.  Even though the child appeared to be beyond hope the parents were convicted to take a stand in what they believed and to not allow the witch doctor access to their child, even if the child died.  Miraculously the child’s health improved and they were able to return to the village.  This family gave all the credit to God alone for the healing of their son.

This village also has places where everyone believes evil spirits live and if anyone dares to trespass, they will surely loose their lives.  One of these places is a cave hidden behind a waterfall.  No one in the village has ever ventured behind the waterfall into the cave.  The missionaries had gone into the cave a number of times and the people were just sure that the evil spirits would take their lives.  Just a few weeks ago some of the new believers while swimming close to the waterfall decided to go in to take a look.  They are no longer afraid of the evil spirits power.  All of these things have been a huge testimony to the rest of the village, because the people don’t have any other explanation for what they are seeing.

Near the end of our time with the believers singing and worshiping God in their hut, one of them turned to me and said, “we are all one family now”.  That sent chills down my spine, here I am sitting in a village in the middle of the jungle on New Britain Island in someone’s grass hut late at night and the people I am sitting with are my new brothers and sisters in Christ.  In God’s eyes all of us are the same and we will be together again in eternity!

While you were celebrating Easter four new believers in this village were being baptized.  In North America baptisms often occur in front of the church.  In this village the baptism took place down by the river.  The church is small, so there were many more unbelievers than Christians gathered to see what was going on.  The believers shared their testimonies before this crowd of their neighbors and relatives who don’t know Christ.  You can be praying for them as they continue to learn from God’s word and stand firm in their faith.  Pray that many more come to know Christ in this village.

Often I have to remind myself that I am not dreaming when I am flying the helicopter around in the mountains of Papua New Guinea.  The most exciting thing about it is that it is for the purpose of seeing people come into a relationship with Jesus Christ.  As I have been flying around PNG, it is humbling to think of how much God loves all of these people in thousands of small villages we fly over every day.  Somehow it is easy to think that because we are educated or wealthy in comparison that we have something to offer God or that in some way we are more important in His eyes.  This thinking is such a lie.  God loves these people so much that He has made a way for these people living with nothing, in some of the most remote parts of the world, to learn about how much He loves them.

Flying our helicopter I have the privilege of having a part in many different church planting works around PNG.  The purpose of our missionary work here is not to build a church building or to change the people’s culture or dress, but rather to bring them the gospel message as clearly as possible.  Some of my friends and co-workers are medical doctors or engineers who have given up the comforts of the developed world and their careers to live with people they have nothing in common with.  After getting to know these different missionaries it is amazing to see how they love the people.  After teaching the people in the villages through the scriptures usually a number of people will put their faith in Christ.  It is so exciting to see the life transforming power of the Holy Spirit in these new believers lives.

In some of the locations I fly to I have seen the new believers with such purpose in their lives.  They are excited to grow crops of coffee or cacao or find other ways to earn money for the purpose supporting their new church.  They also have taken ownership in learning how to use computers in order to help prepare and teach literacy to others in the villages as well as help with the translation of the Bible into their language.  The people are now sending out their own missionaries and are learning an entirely new language themselves in order to reach some of their neighboring tribes.  Often airstrips take a couple of years of manual labor to build.  One location in Madang Province, the church is growing like crazy and they realized that they needed an airstrip so that they would be able to get literacy material printed in town and flown in as well as sending their own believers out for conferences and to give them a way to fly out produce to buyers in town to bring in income for their church.  They had hundreds of people working on the airstrip and had it completed in just two months without outside financial support from the missionaries.  Another place I visited has a world map on the wall inside their kunai grass church building.  The people there have told the missionaries that once they have reached their neighboring villages they are going to work to raise the money to send their own missionaries to other countries, because they say the command of the great commission also applies to them.  They have such a large vision for what the Lord could do through them.

Interacting with these new believers and supporting our missionaries living in these remote locations is the best job in the world.

Over the past six months I have been very busy flying with Ray, my co-worker and instructor in the helicopter.  For my flight checkout in Papua New Guinea, Ray needs to make sure that he flies with me into every area of PNG where we operate.  Some of the families we fly for are on home assignment, so we were not sure how to get opportunities to fly to these locations.  We do not normally do much commercial flying, but when it can benefit our missionaries in some way – like positioning the helicopter close to their location for free, then we jump at those opportunities.  Recently we were called up by a company who installs cell phone towers.  They needed us to spend a morning flying there men and supplies to a work camp on the top of a mountain.  We are not normally very interested in this type of flying, but the location they wanted us to go to was within half a kilometer of on of one of our missionaries villages.  So I was able to get training landing at their location and learn the terrain in the area with no cost to myself or other missionaries.  That missionary family will also have cellular service for phone and e-mail when they arrive back from North America.  It is so neat when the Lord works things out like that.

I have now had two trips out to New Britain Island, we have been doing a lot of sling loading (suspending oversize cargo underneath the helicopter by rope).  I did not have much experience with that before coming here, but Ray and I have been doing a lot of that together.  The training has been progressing very well and I am almost ready to be let loose on my own.  In the next couple of weeks I need to do some training on simulated helicopter emergencies.  I am fairly rusty at this and have not done any in this model of helicopter before.  It will be good for me to be up to speed before I am flying on my own.

I really want to thank everyone who has had a part in making this training happen.  In the fall I was not sure how we would ever afford to complete this training.  We try to keep our costs as low as possible for our missionaries, so we don’t want to have to raise their flight costs in order to cover my training.  After praying about it and letting these needs be known we have just been overwhelmed at how God has put this need on the hearts of many people who have given generously to make this happen.  It has been so exciting to see that my training is now fully funded and even though it has taken a bit longer than I had expected, I am very close to being finished.  My partner Ray has been such an excellent teacher during this whole process and I am a much safer pilot now that I have spent time flying with him here in PNG.

Thank you for continuing to pray for me as I finish this final simulated emergency training and start flying on my own sometime during the next couple of weeks.

Papua New Guinea is full of WWII history.  There are many aircraft wrecks and shipwrecks off of the coast.  There were many large battles between the Allied forces and the Japanese.  Just in Rabaul alone there are more than 700 KMs of Japanese tunnels full of equipment such as tanks and anti-aircraft guns that they were hiding.  Recently in the news an American bomber pilot’s body was removed from a wreck, identified and brought back to America for burial.  This site was in an area I regularly fly with the helicopter – a placed whose name literally mean “ends of the earth”.  If you are interested in reading the story on CNN follow this link:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/13/airman.remains.identified/index.html

Mike with Ray (middle - the pilot currently training Mike) and John Mark (our Chief Pilot)

Over the years we have seen the Lord provide in amazing ways for many different needs that we have had.  He has used people like yourself to partner with us financially to meet many different needs that we have faced since deciding to follow Him into full time ministry.  Now that I am flying again in Papua New Guinea I have a very large, one time ministry expense ($19,000) that is needed to get me checked out to fly in PNG.

Even though I have the required licenses and experience hours to qualify to fly the helicopter here in PNG, there is still some training that can only take place inside of PNG.  Over the next couple of months, I am flying with another NTM pilot on all of my helicopter flights.  Ray is in charge of teaching me everything he knows from his years of flying in Papua New Guinea.  PNG is full of large mountains and weather that is constantly changing, there is more radio communication that is required here, but because of the terrain we are required to use an HF radio which can be very difficult to understand.  I will also get a thorough review practicing simulated helicopter emergencies before I will be released to fly on my own.

Most businesses pay for their pilot’s company training, but we fly for missionaries at less than the cost of fuel and maintenance because otherwise they would be unable to afford to church plant in remote locations.  As a result, NTM Aviation is under too much of a financial burden to cover my pilot training.  Much of our flying during this checkout will be operational flights for missionaries.  The missionaries will pay for their portion of the loading inside the helicopter, but because we are  flying with two pilots the amount of space in the helicopter that is available to the missionaries is reduced.  The missionaries who use the helicopter do so out of necessity, not because they are independently wealthy.  The loss of this carrying capacity needs to be covered by the pilot being trained.  When we practice emergencies we do not carry any passengers because of safety.  During these flights I am expected to pay the full hourly cost of operating the helicopter.  I just happen to be flying one of the most needed, but most expensive aircraft that we operate in PNG.  The aviation department is estimating that this PNG checkout will cost $25,000.  We have received six thousand dollars in donations towards this project  leaving $19,000 left to be raised.  If you are in a position to help with a donation towards these training expenses, it would be a huge help to us and the missionaries we serve.  You are welcome to contact us for more information or follow the directions for making a donation to this project found below.

Tax deductible donations can be made in the USA and in Canada.

If you live in the USA you can write a check to “New Tribes Mission” and include a note designating the donation to “NTMAV: PNG CO – McGregor”.  You can mail your check to:

New Tribes Mission

1000 East First Street

Sanford, FL 32771

If you live in Canada you can mail a donation writen to “New Tribes Mission Canada” and include a note designating the donation to “NTMAV: PNG CO – McGregor”.  This can be mailed to:

New Tribes Mission of Canada

Box 707

Durham, Ontario, N0G 1R0

Canada

My first medivac flight!

For the next few months I will be flying our Bell Long Ranger helicopter with Ray, my partner here in Papua New Guinea.  Ray has been given the task of teaching me everything I need to know about flying helicopters in PNG.   A couple of days ago we got a call from the Health Department of Papua New Guinea asking us to medivac two patients out of a remote mountain village and fly them to the Goroka Hausik (hospital).  In North America this would be a pretty straightforward operation.  We would find out the location, do some preflight planning, check the weather and head out for the mission.  Here in PNG there are so many things that make it complicated.  To start with, we had no clue where this place was located, the altitude it was at, the size and condition of the landing zone, and there are no weather reporting services close to us, so checking the weather is not even an option.  Helicopters do not handle slope very well (ten degrees max), but many people who ask us to come help think that we can land anywhere.  We could have shown up only to find that they had an area the size of a postage stamp sloped on the side of a hill.  After asking a number of questions to find out as much information as possible, the only thing that was somewhat certain was that it was located somewhere in the forest between two towns we had found on the chart.  That left an awfully big area to search, so we asked the Health Department to send along someone who knew the area and could help us find where we were supposed to go.  We found out that the patients we were to pick up would be able to sit in the seats, so that saved us the time and weight of bringing a stretcher along.  After looking at the chart of the area we had to decide what fuel we would need.  This was a tough decision to make.  We wanted to take minimal fuel so that we would be light enough to land if the helipad happened to be a high altitude location on the side of a mountain, but we also wanted to take more fuel to give us extra time to deal with weather and search for it if we did not find the location right away.  We had to strike a balance between the two.  After weighing all of the info we boarded the helicopter with the man who was there to help us navigate.

Soon we were in the air, heading north out of Goroka climbing up to the bottom of some large mountains up ahead.  All of our conversations with the Health Department and the man riding with us led us to believe that we would find this village in the foothills of these large mountains.  Once we got close we asked the man where we needed to be looking.  He told us that we needed to go further to the backside of a hill ahead.  Once we got there, he informed us we were not in the right place, but that it was actually further on the backside of the large 8000-foot mountains looming before us.

Now we were headed into an area that is not even in the vicinity of the area that we were told to expect.  Good thing we had decided to put on some extra fuel, but we were worried that even that may not be enough for what we needed and may have caused us to have to abort the mission early.  We made the decision to continue on, but agreed to watch our fuel closely so that we wouldn’t accidentally start using our reserve.  As we climbed along the side of the mountain, it became obvious that the top of the mountain was completely covered by clouds.  We are not allowed to fly through clouds in our helicopter operations, so we needed to find a hole in the clouds that we could safely fly through.  We did not want to get over eager and find what pilots here call a “sucker hole”.  This is a hole in the clouds, through which is seen a glimpse of terrain on the other side which leads the pilot to believe he knows where he is at, yet once he commits to fly through it the pilot finds himself somewhere he didn’t expect with the clouds closing in behind him.  Thankfully the Lord provided a clear opening in the clouds that allowed us into the next mountain valley.

With just a couple more minutes of fuel to use before we needed to turn around, our friend finally spotted the village on the mountainside below us.  It was a small number of thatch huts slightly obscured in the forest below.  If you saw a picture of the mountainside, you would be hard pressed to find it.  Even as we got closer we had no idea where we were going to be able to land the helicopter.  Eventually, we saw a very small clearing in the forest where the trees had been cut down to make room for a helicopter.  There were large trees in close proximity to the landing zone, we had to do a very steep approach watching carefully to make sure that our tail rotor cleared all of the tree branches.  As we hovered down we could see a group of tribal people who had carried a man who had injured his leg and another who was super thin from some sort of sickness.  The people were not afraid of the helicopter, so they were lined up close to the edge of our landing zone.  As pilots this makes us nervous because they do not realize the danger that they are putting themselves into.  It took the down-wash of the blades sending dirt, leaves and tree branches flying to finally get them to take a few steps back.

Once on the ground we got out of the helicopter quickly to make sure that no one walked close to the tail rotor.  We loaded up the sick and injured men into the helicopter and then it became obvious that there were others who wanted to accompany them back to town.  We had to quickly figure out the weight available and decide who was allowed to “help” them back to town and who needed to stay.  After loading the additional passengers we were on our way back to town.

As we approached town we got permission to plan our approach directly to the Goroka hospital.  Being my first time there, I did not know that there is no designated helipad at the hospital, so we landed right beside the building on the lawn.  The noise of the helicopter approaching quickly drew at least 200 people close to the place we were landing.  Many were standing within fifty feet of the helicopter as soon as we touch down.   Then I have to get out and wave my hands like crazy trying to get everyone to back up and move away from behind the helicopter for their safety.  I have never seen anything like it.

We were thankful that the patients have made it to the hospital and that the mission was a success.  Without the helicopter there is no way that these people would have been able hike or be carried out of the area only a fifteen minute flight away.  Previously, Ray had another medevac where there was a woman having trouble delivering a baby in the same valley we had just gone into.  He flew back only to find her with a couple of helpers hiking along the side of a mountain stream trying to find a place where it was clear enough for the helicopter to land and pick them up.  Ray flew back and forth, but could not find a safe place to land the helicopter.  Eventually he was low on fuel and had to return home.  We were told later that this woman and her baby died as a result of the medevac being unable to work out.  Due to the remote locations with no road access in this country, this kind of thing happens often.

There are so many needs in Papua New Guinea that there is no way we could ever come close to meeting them all.  I am so thankful that our primary job is partnering with our church planters and as a team we are primarily focused on meeting the people’s spiritual needs.  This is the only hope for lasting change.  Our flying consists of supplying and transporting our missionaries as well as other evangelical missions living out in tribes, to helping the Health Department flying medevac flights for anyone in need.  Even in locations with airstrips, missionaries depend on our helicopter to transport over-sized items such as water tanks and building materials.  Many of our church-planting missionaries would not be able to stay living in the bush without the helicopter service we provide.  Thank you for praying for me as I work through all of this training I need to do to get fully checked out to fly in PNG.